Have been using Open Office for 2 years or more and updated to 3.1 some time ago with no apparent problems.

Out of the blue as I was opening an established spreadsheet file a meesage comes up "Due to an unexpected error Openoffice.org crashed. If you click OK file will be recovered automatically"

You do this and openoffice.org Document Recovery opens, inviting you to start recovery. You do this and my Zone Alarm system says "Openoffice.org 3.1 is trying to communicate withC:\Program Files\Openoffice.org 3\program\soffice.bin by opening its process"

You allow it to do so, but each time it reverts to "Due to an unexpected error Openoffice.org crashed" and the whole process repeats, with the same outcome. You can only get of it by opting not to start the recovery program.

I've uninstalled 3.1, re-installed it with the same results. I've even uninstalled it again and re-installed an earlier Openoffice issue with the same results.

Is there anything else anyone can suggest I try?, before I abandon Openoffice and install MS Office, as these files E Mailed to an MS Office user still open OK.

The important step is to delete the User profile, as set out in tutorial cited above. A reinstall does not refresh this, and a purge may only remove program files, not the user configuration files. It can also happen that a user is trying to open only the one file, which has become unstable. If a new istall can create, save and open a small trial file, but cannot open the old file, then the problem may attach to that file; it may be possible to help if so.